Did the writers steal from "Friends" (referring to the characters, NOT the premise of the series)?

[Nevaeh Lleh]

The male and female leads somewhat bore the same character traits:

1.  Rachel and Penny (America's Sweetheart/girl-next-door who goes from waitress to career woman)

2.  Ross and Leonard (girl-next-door's whiny boyfriend)

3.  Joey and Howard (playboy)

4.  Chandler and Raj (has trouble with women)

5.  Phoebe and Amy (weird; plays musical instrument)

6.  Monica and Bernadette (short-tempered and bossy)

7.  Recurring characters Gunther and Stuart (always gets the short end of the stick; also by coincidence, the guy who plays Gunther used to work in a coffee shop, and the guy who plays Stuart used to work in a comic book store).

In Sheldon's case, since TBBT has FOUR male leads, the only thing I can point out is that he and Monica both have OCD.

Yes, I know I'm stretching this a little too far, since both shows' characters are entirely different in terms of the "nerd" factor:

1.  Joey is dimwitted and suave while Howard is intelligent and creepy.

2. Chandler just has a bit of a complex, as opposed to Raj who is flat-out socially awkward.

Also in terms of opposite coincidences, Michael Rapaport played characters who were on "both sides of the law" in "Friends" (police officer) and TBBT (illegally sold liquid helium).

Edited September 12, 2017 by Nevaeh Lleh

[3ku11]

Not really. Friends is a blueprint. Other series have materialisticlly derived from too. Think How I met your mother. While your right from characterisation. Their are a lot of similarities between the two shows. Their is also a lot more dissimilarities. And tbbt like Friends did. Has it's own agenda. So I see it more as inspired by Friends. Then stealing. 

Edited September 12, 2017 by 3ku11

[Tensor]

5 hours ago, Nevaeh Lleh said:

The male and female leads somewhat bore the same character traits:

1.  Rachel and Penny (America's Sweetheart/girl-next-door who goes from waitress to career woman)

2.  Ross and Leonard (girl-next-door's whiny boyfriend)

3.  Joey and Howard (playboy)

4.  Chandler and Raj (has trouble with women)

5.  Phoebe and Amy (weird; plays musical instrument)

6.  Monica and Bernadette (short-tempered and bossy)

7.  Recurring characters Gunther and Stuart (always gets the short end of the stick; also by coincidence, the guy who plays Gunther used to work in a coffee shop, and the guy who plays Stuart used to work in a comic book store).

In Sheldon's case, since TBBT has FOUR male leads, the only thing I can point out is that he and Monica both have OCD.

Yes, I know I'm stretching this a little too far, since both shows' characters are entirely different in terms of the "nerd" factor:

1.  Joey is dimwitted and suave while Howard is intelligent and creepy.

2. Chandler just has a bit of a complex, as opposed to Raj who is flat-out socially awkward.

Also in terms of opposite coincidences, Michael Rapaport played characters who were on "both sides of the law" in "Friends" (police officer) and TBBT (illegally sold liquid helium).

I suggest you go through any number of series from the 1930-50s radio shows, or early television shows, from which Friends derives a lot of their material.  These are sitcoms, the humor derives from the situations the characters are put in. While there are similarities, there are also differences.     Just as there are similarities in a lot of other series.   I always saw Howard as the Davie Leisure character "Charley", from Empty nest.   You can go through and find any number of similarities between just about any two series.  Try a look at TV Tropes, for many examples of series similarities.